


Part 2

by Penguinsandbowties



Series: I'm A Writer [2]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Compliant, F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-23 18:20:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13195896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penguinsandbowties/pseuds/Penguinsandbowties
Summary: After Sara comes out, Harry must confront his feelings for Niall. Not complete-- more to come.





	Part 2

The moon is big tonight, Harry thinks standing at the window above the sink. Harry doesn’t remember how Niall got up to his room, let alone when he came to fancy him. 

When he goes back to his room Niall is snoring loudly, the covers tucked between his legs leaving on uncovered. He smiles at first but shake sit off knowing you’re not supposed to think this way about a best mate. 

As he lays on his back, hands clasped over his stomach, completely uncovered, he can hear a few giggles from Sara or Cara as the roll around in Sara’s bed across the hall. Eventually Harry does fall asleep, but only after he rolls on his side and Niall follows suit wrapping his arm around Harry. 

In the morning Harry wakes before Niall. He doesn’t move until he feels Niall start to wake. And when he does, Harry pretends to still be sleeping. Niall tip toes around the room after letting go of his grip on Harry’s waist. Harry watches him go without looking back. A moment later, he can hear Niall talking to someone out in the living room. 

“Sorry love, can’t talk now. Maybe tonight?” Harry hears him say. He can’t hear what the other person, he assumes is Sara, says. A bit later she comes into his room and sits next to him.

“I know you’re awake.” She says when he scrunches up his eye lids trying to hard to pretend he’s still asleep. 

“What do you need dearest?” He asks reluctantly opening up his eyelids. 

“Cara asked me to be her girlfriend.” 

“Does she know your relationship with Niall is a sham?” She nods and ducks her head down. 

“I didn’t mean to tell her, but I really like her and I wanted to be honest.”

“Then talk to Jeff, it’s about time, this thing has run it’s course anyway.”

~~

The meetings are long, and since Harry was part of the reason she even signed on to become Niall’s “girlfriend” he’ll make it his mission to help release his friends from a pretend relationship.

The room is stiff and everyone all looks so conservative. Even Harry, who decided to button all the buttons on his top this time. It goes back and fourth, Sara has to hire a brand new set of lawyers that aren’t the same lawyers that helped her sign the contract in the first place. 

“It’s a mutual decision between both of us.” Niall says. The original contract was for a few months and then tour started and it was extended one more month. And after that month everyone sort of forgot about it, so even though the contract doesn’t explicitly apply any longer, the situation is messy. Niall and Sara were seen in public enough together, and with Sara’s name now on some songs for the new album, something that might have happened hadn’t she sacrificed this part of herself. 

“It would just be weird wouldn’t it? To have her still around, but not with any of you.” A tall woman in a black and grey suit says. 

“It could be a nasty breakup. Sara could say she’s in a new relationship or that she’d been using Niall to get where she wants.” A bald man speaks up this time. 

“No. If anyone has to look bad, let it be me.” Niall speaks up. 

“Is there any other logical reason for the two of you to break up?” Jeff asks. 

“Well. I’m gay- I mean I’m a lesbian.” Sara says. Harry’s and Niall’s eyes go wide. “I’m ready. It’s time. I want to be out. And that’s why I want out. Couldn’t that be reason enough. I tried it on with Niall because of a conservative background, but I just couldn’t shake it and this is who I am, have always been.” They all listen to her. She’s gotten better at that, commanding the room. Yanking everyone’s attention to be put on her. 

“I think that’s great, but—“

“No “buts”, I think that’s a great reason.”

The meeting goes smoothly after that. Sara’s lawyers help her out of the contract and new publicity things are settled. 

“Wait.” Sara says. Everyone’s all staring at their watches, waiting to go home. “I have one condition that I won’t settle on.” She writes something on a piece of paper she’s been doodling on, and passes it to Harry. 

I’m out if you get to come out.

It reads. Harry blushes and shakes his head. 

“This is your chance. You’re ready.”

“So are you.” She fires back. 

“What is going on?” The bald man sighs. 

They decide for Harry it’s not the right time. Sara leaves the meeting angry, but she still gets to get broken up with Niall so maybe it’s all worth it. 

Harry tries to keep up conversation as the trio makes it back to Niall’s. Sara practically fumes the whole way. 

“It’s not fair.” She seethes. 

“I know, but—i—“

“No. You were ready wayyy before me. You had a handle on who you were. I didn’t. I didn’t even know who I was then.” She’s pacing the length of Niall kitchen. The two boys sit on the stools watching her. 

“You can be with Cara now. This time tomorrow Niall’s going to make some sappy post about you on twitter while you can finally go out on a real date.” Harry says grabbing her hand, making her stop. He waits for her to look him in the eyes. She rolls her’s and huffs out a sigh. 

“Niall?” 

“Yes love?”

“How come you’re not in a rush to get out of this. Certainly you’re just as eager to be able to date whomever you please?” His face goes all blotchy red, and Harry thinks it’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. Niall shrugs. 

“Anyone thirsty?” He stands and goes to the fridge pulling out a bottle of beer. He offers to Sara and then to Harry. When they decline he opens it and downs about half. Harry watches his adam’s apple bob. He let’s his eyes glaze over for a just a moment before coming to. 

“Drop it guys.” He marches over to the French door to his back garden and looks out, watching the gardener’s care for the ferns. 

“Niall, you never mention anyone that you’re serious about.” Harry obverses. Niall stays silent. 

“You never mention anyone. Not in the whole two years I’ve known you.” 

“You’ve been officially with Cara, what, two weeks and you’re already thinking of setting me up?”

“In fact…” Harry and Sara stay behind him. Harry lifts his hand to cover Sara mouth because he can tell where she’s going with it. 

“Doesn’t matter anyway.” 

Harry and Sara watch Niall’s back as he leaves and heads up a flight of stairs. Sara takes a step forward like she means to follow him, apologize maybe. Harry hold up his hand as if to hold her back. The two of them go back into Niall kitchen, Sara goes to the sink for some water, Harry takes his stool on the other side of the island. 

“Touchy subject?”

“He’s never really been too open about people he likes. I think maybe he was only so forward with you because you were already supposed to be dating—you know?” Sara nods. 

The room is still. Only the sound of their breathing filling it. They wait for Niall for close to an hour. When he doesn’t come back down, Harry decides to head up, but when he finds him, Niall is under the covers in his bed, asleep. He wishes he tuck himself behind Niall, wrap an arm around his waist and kiss the back of his neck. 

Harry forces himself to back away from Niall’s room unscathed. 

“Hungry?” He asks reaching the bottom of the steps and looking over to find Sara hasn’t moved. 

“Where’s Niall?”

“Asleep.” Harry’s already at the door zipping up his coat when Sara says she thinks maybe she should stay so she can in fact apologize for prying. “Nonsense. come on.” He holds his hand out for her too take, so she does. 

The weeks following the release of the single sparked lots of commotion. Going straight to the top of the charts, breaking a few records, it quickly became a universal classic. Because of it’s success Sara was thrust into the spotlight.

“Sabrina Carpenter, she’s a new Disney chick—her manager called Jeff today.” Harry says once their food is at the table. Garlic dances around them as the steam rises from their plates. 

“And why would Sabrina Carpenter’s manager be calling Jeff?”

“She wants to write with you.”

Sara sets her burger down; the bite she’s chewing takes about a thousand years to finally break down. 

“Wants to write with me?” Harry wears a dopey grin on his face. One that shows Sara he’s proud and amused. Harry doesn’t speak anymore about it. And Sara doesn’t ask Harry anymore about Niall. It’s a fairly quiet meal, only on person approaching them for a picture. Harry holds his arms out to get the three of them and then the young woman is on her way. The couple finish quick so as not to press their luck. 

They get separate taxis, one for Harry who decides to head home, and one for Sara who has plans to hang out with Cara. 

“I’ll let you know if I’ll be home tonight.” She smiles. He winks and waves as he he sees her off. 

In the back of the cab, Harry plays with his phone. Turning it between his thumb and index finger around it’s edges until the driver stops in front of his gate. Summer in LA was ending, he could feel it in his knees as he climbed out of the back of the car. 

Harry suddenly felt very small in his big house all by himself. Probably the reason he asked Sara to move in, so he wouldn’t be alone. He sits on the leather couch when he get’s inside. The couch in the den with the big TV and surround sound. He hates to think what will happen if more than just Sabrina Carpenter wants to write with Sara, or worse if her and Cara really hit it off, she’ll more than likely want to move out….

Sara does make it home that night. Harry hides his tear stained cheeks and red rimmed eyes, pretending not to hear her come in and call his name in a singsong. When she finds in across the couch, knees tucked tight into his torso, he pretends to be asleep again. She combs back his hear and covers him with the fleece blanket that usually lays across the arm rest. 

After she makes it to her bedroom, he sneaks through the halls to his own. He draws a bath and pretends he’s not upset Niall hasn’t text yet. Instead he watches the moon in the sky. It’s big tonight, and it makes Harry wonder why sometimes it looks bigger than other times. 

The next he wakes early for his run. The suns up so he’s up. There’s a thick cover of clouds but it’s still sunny. He runs fast, paying no attention to the twinge in his left ankle every time it slaps the pavement. Kale keeping up next to him, his tongue out and panting. Its just late enough of that the streets are only just coming alive. 

They loop around a couple more blocks and then head back. Kale goes straight for his dish of water while Harry gulps down a glass of tap water before he starts making coffee for Sara. He sits in the breakfast nook, on his phone sorting through some emails he’s meant to get back to. He notices a couple with the subject like “SARA” in all caps. He smiles and shakes his head.

“Am I your assistant or am I yours?” He asks when she finally comes down. 

“What?” She pulls her phone out of the waistband of her shorts to look at. 

“I’ve got three emails sent to me about you.” She blushes. 

“Sorry.”

“You’re getting popular.” She pours a cup of coffee with a dash of cream and mixes it in with a spoon. “I’m pro-“

“Proud of me. Thank you Harry.”

Harry sets his phone down and Sara makes the two of them some toast with peanut butter and banana, just the way Sara’s mom used to make for her. They eat it and then they both head off to their respective showers to get ready for the day.

Harry and the boys have yet another photo shoot, for what Sara isn’t sure. Harry would promise up and down the street he wasn’t wasting time in the shower standing under the water falling over his face, but he was. It felt calm, it felt like he could relax, and these days he doesn’t take those moments for granted. 

The video is up to 30 million views on youtube already. They told Sara it would happen quick, but she wasn’t expecting its success in such I high volume. The sales have skyrocketed, presales for the album have launched into a new solar system. Album seven was sure to be a hit. 

Sometimes it was hard for Harry to even understand how it happens. How a group, or person could just expect such fortune. 

Once Harry is dressed he and Sara climb into his car and take off towards the warehouse. It’s a big open field of turf, yard lines painted on and everything. Louis cracks a joke about being a fan of football, but not American football while Niall pretends to run the yard lines to one of the end goals. Needless to say it’s a laugh the whole time. 

It goes by relatively quick. Sara stays in a corner attending to emails that she’d been neglecting while also having a sneaky conversation with Cara, who is also at a photo shoot. The boys stand in front of the camera after hair, wardrobe, and makeup, and the photographer get’s the shots fairly quick considering the amount of goofing off Sara can hear from 100 feet away. 

After, everyone is whisked away to another meeting. Through the hall Harry catches up to Niall and reaches out to stop him. Niall let’s himself get caught. The other’s head ahead of them into a room. 

“Sorry about earlier.” Harry says afraid to look Niall in the eyes. “About Sara. She’s just excited you know?” The blonde nods and then they follow into the the room at the end of the hall. 

The room is small. Smaller than Harry is used to. There’s just one couch, with Liam and Louis sitting at the ends there’s not much room for the others, reminds him of the couches that talk shows would try to force all five boys on in the early days. Niall plops down and presses his side next to Liam who puts his arm around him, leaving Harry about two inches to squeeze into. 

Nervous to be sitting so close to Niall, he opts for the arm rest Louis is comfortably leaning against. Harry gently pushes his arm off and leans against it. The boys don’t think twice, but Louis does try to push him off. 

A man comes and sits in a folding chair just opposite them. A camera behind him—pointing at them. The man begins his interrogation a few moments into the laughter—trying to make use of all the time he has to speak with the boys. Harry sits with his foot on the cushion Louis sits on and his elbow on his knee and his thumb and first finger pinching his bottom lip. He listens intently to the questions and then the answers. When the question is pointed at him he swiftly and smoothly answers with out missing a beat. 

In the back of his head, he can’t stop thinking about the way Niall’s hair is styles. Flat against his forehead, not sticking up like he usually does it. Niall hasn’t changed much—even after all the years. Harry find comfort in that, comfort in things that don’t change. 

Before he knows it, he and Sara are sitting in his car and he’s driving them somewhere. 

“Remember Cara wanted you to stay for dinner?” She asks him. 

“Yeah sure.” 

Harry’s phone beeps and he wants to look down at it, but he can’t be sure to trust himself. 

“We should have gotten a driver, or called a taxi.” Sara says when Harry gently swerves closer to the white line parallel to their car. “Is Niall okay?” She asks a few moments later, but Harry doesn’t quick catch it the first time because an asshole pulls out in front of them. Harry has to slam on the breaks which launches all of the things in Sara’s lap, forward onto the floor. 

When Harry looks over to see if Sara is all right, even though there wasn’t any collision, her eyes are clamped shut and both her hands are in white-knuckle-fists. 

“Okay?” 

She exhales slowly. 

“Did we die?” She asks, to which he can’t help but chuckle. “First of all it’s not funny.”

“First of all..” He mimic her poorly but earns a gently laugh from Sara.

Harry is more careful driving the rest of the way to Cara’s. He keeps both hands on the wheel and eyes searching the whole time. Checking blind spots and rearview mirror several times a minute. Sara notices and kisses his cheek when the finally arrive safe and sound. 

Sara leads him right in without knocking. Harry is impressed—even after Sara had moved into his pad with him, she always knocked and called out to him when she got home. 

“Cara darling!” She sing songs. Harry smiles and shakes his head in defeat. 

“What took you so long?” The slender women with her arm around Sara says. 

“We almost died.” 

“We did not almost die.” Harry states. 

“Are you okay?” Cara turns to look Sara over like a protective mother. 

“We’re fine.” Harry says above Sara’s retelling. 

“An asshole pulled out in front of us-“

“But we’re fine.”

“Yes we’re fine.” Cara kisses Sara’s temple.

“Glad to hear it. Who wants tacos?”

Harry helps Cara in the kitchen while Sara sits in front of Cara’s little record player creating the playlist for the night. Harry finds himself watching his old friend glide through the kitchen making his (and Sara’s) favorite dish. He smiles, because he is glad for two of his closest friends, he’s happy to be here. Listening to Cara go on about some skeevy photographer in Milan who tried it on with her. Harry laughs at all the right times and nods along letting her know he’s listening, even though he’s not really. 

His mind is thinking back to earlier. In his own photo shoot slash interview. When he was thinking about how Niall hadn’t changed much since the band began. Louis learned to reign in his aggressiveness, Liam got a little smarter, and Harry—Harry felt like he was something completely different. No matter how much Gemma told him he was same as ever, or his mum assuring him he’s still a good person, he just didn’t believe it. Short hair, long hair, short hair, growing his hair out, London, LA, on a yacht, on a private plane, doing a juice cleanse, going to cycle fit, being nominated for a Oscar… 

“Harry?” Cara’s eyebrows are cinched in the middle. 

“Yeah?”

“How are you?”

Harry thinks. Or he tries to think. Something feels off. Instead of figuring it out he listens to Sara shuffling through the vinyl collection to pick the songs she knows he likes. 

“You’re kind of scaring me.” Cara’s voice is rough, but he finds warmth and comfort in it. He lets his head hang with his chin touching his chest. She gives him a moment and then reaches out to put a delicate hand on his back. 

“I don’t know.” When he brings his head back up he shoves the heels of his hands into his eyes- tries to push the tears back inside. “Just feels like a lot all of a sudden. Sara and you, and the single, and whatever is going on with Niall. And like—I almost died today, because I was thinking about Niall again… I—I can’t believe—I feel different.” His breathing is hard now. Cara’s hand rubs his back in circles. She listens closely. He prays that Sara can’t hear. 

“Want me to set the table—“ Sara asks as she walks in the room, her hips swaying to the song she’s put on. “Is he?” Cara nods as Harry shakes a little more. He turns his back to Sara, willing her to leave for a minute. “I’ll just go to the store and pick up some more wine…” She says slipping her sweater back over her head and grabbing her bag. 

Harry thanks his lucky stars. 

Cara doesn’t start until the door clicks shut. 

“Did you know you were like one of the first people in the industry that like saw me, like really saw me, and befriended me, and not just because I was in this new band who was getting really famous but like—we were just two like British kids getting to do something amazing?”

“I remember. You had that horrid green beanie.”

“Hey, you said it was cute.”

“I did not.” 

They laugh. The tension defused for the moment. 

“I don’t know what I’m doing.” Cara waits a few moments and lets him think through what he really wants to say. “Sara got to come and that’s so great. And I want that—I do, and she was so great about wanting me to come out before her and stuff, but like they still won’t let me. Can you believe it? I’m not allowed to come out of the fucking closet as fucking gay because my management won’t let me.”

“I can’t believe they still won’t let you.”

“I know it’s fucking stupid.” Harry pauses, bites his lip before he plucks up the courage to say what he wants to say. “And I like someone and I want to know if they like me, but I have it on good record that they like a really good friend of mine who is a girl, so I don’t know if he’s gay let alone into me and its-“

“You fancy Niall?”

“It’s just so hard because I have to see— wait what?” He asks, but a blush betrays him. His face is beat red and he doesn’t have time to try and convince her otherwise. “Did Sara tell you?”

“God know, I think I knew you liked him before we even had the pleasure of meeting my wonderful girlfriend.”

“You’re sickening, the both of you.”

“I know.” She smiles and gloats. “Back to you though. So you like Niall?”

“And Niall had that thing with Sara—“

“Wait I thought that was fake?”

“He kind of fell for her I guess? She didn’t tell you?” Cara shakes her head and he makes a “oops I did something wrong” face. “Are you mad? Please don’t be mad. I think she has her own reasons not to tell you.” Harry instantly feels three times more like shit. “She didn’t want you to worry and she didn’t want to screw anything up probably—“

He stops when he hears to front door click shut. 

“I’m back—“ Sara says bringing in the bags. She peaks her head in to make sure Harry is doing better, but pauses when she catches the look on Cara’s face. 

Cara is rarely ever mad, Harry can count on one hand the times he’s seen her at all slightly angry. Now, he can practically feel the steam leaving her ears. 

“Babe?” 

“I’m not mad.”

“Cara, it was an accident, she-“

“What’s going on?”

Sara looks on confused. She sees Harry looking between her and Cara. Cara stands tall, her chin up and her jaw locked. The anger has made her eyebrows grow thicker. The taco meat on the stove sizzles dryly behind them. 

And then, Cara turns it off. Her face softens and she swallows whatever it was she was about to yell out. 

“Niall had a crush on you?” Her voice is small and she eyes sink down to the counter where her hands found a paper napkin to rip up. Sara crashes into her, Cara wraps her gangly arms around her. 

There must be something in the air. Harry types in the caption portion of the picture of the napkin he’s about to post. 

After Cara and Sara make up, Sara changes the record and they get back to finishing the meal. It’s a little dry, but Sara remembered the avocados at the store so it tasted fine. The wine is gone after just a couple of hours and they’re all a little tipsy. They end up in a fit of giggles on the floor when they try to play a card game, and soon after Harry passes out on the couch. 

Harry wakes up with a note stuck to his forehead. Head throbbing and stomach turning he crawls into the kitchen for some water. 

Gone to a shoot. Lock up when you leave xX Cara p.s. Sara is in my bedroom asked me to ask you if she could have the day off. Thanks love. 

 

Harry sits at the counter sipping a cool glass of water. He listens to the quiet house. He thinks he can almost hear Sara’s steady breathing down the hall. After a while he reaches for his phone. Not in his pockets. Not under the pillow or between the cushions. He flings his arm over the edge of the sofa and feels soft carpet under his finger tips. When he feels the cool plastic just at arms reach he stretches a little more to grasp it fully. The extra effort causes him to loose balance and he tumbles onto the floor. 

Harry groans and curses. 

“Harry?” Sara calls from the other room. 

“Yeah?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Just fell off the couch.”

“Can I have the day off?”

“Can I?” Harry asks without missing a beat. 

“Does that mean we have to go?”  
Harry closes his eyes. His whole body aches and he has no clue as to why. He breathes. When he opens his eyes the ceiling above him seems to be dancing which turns his stomach. 

“No.” He says more to himself while he rolls over and moves to his hands and knees to help the getting up process. 

“Please?”

The movement sets off his racing brain. Throbbing he breathes heavily. Hands on his knees. His back hunched over. Slowly he makes it the bathroom in the hall. He get’s back down on his knees to dip his head inside the toilet. He gags, his forehead is pressed to the cool porcelain seat. 

“For the love of god, no. Sara. We can have the day off.” He says wincing when it echoes. Sara mutters a quick “thank you” before dozing back to sleep. 

Harry spends another couple of hours in the bathroom. Head in the toilet for some time before slipping onto the floor for a couple minutes of solitude before he jumps up to get sick again. There’s a cool sweat running down his back. His jeans are too tight around his waist, but he doesn’t have the energy to do anything about it. He knows he needs fluids but also knows that’s out of the question. 

With his head resting on the toilet seat, he pears down at the clear water. Makes him think of that scene from Trainspotting where Ewan McGreggor slides into it—the difference being that the toilet Harry is facing functions perfectly well so at least he’s not thinking about swimming around in feces. 

Harry represses the urge and slides down onto the cool tiles lining the floor. He rolls onto his back so at least maybe when his hang over begins to cease he won’t feel achy. His body is lined against the bath tub. And he wants to crawl in, turn the water on, lay under the showering water. 

He can’t move though. 

Soon enough he falls back asleep. When he wakes next there’s a glass of water just to the left of head and a small white bottle of pills. Harry finds that his stomach isn’t quite turning anymore. He sits up slowly, drinks half the glass of water and grabs the pill bottle to take a couple now that his head is throbbing. 

Slowly he’s able to stand. Knees shaking, he stumbles over to the sink where he splashes water over his face. He makes his way to Cara’s bedroom to find Sara sprawled out under the duvet. He dosn’t think twice about falling in next to her. 

She doesn’t stir.   
Next he remembers is Cara gently shaking his shoulder. Sara’s leaning on her looking down at him. 

“Do you know where my phone is?” He says. His voice is think, and rough. Groggy. Sore. Cara’s blonde hair is tied back away from her face. It’s tight and slicked back. Her hand is held out, in it his phone—fully charged. 

“It’s been ringing all day.” She says when his hand closes around it. He sighs upon seeing the notification lining his screen. Sara rolls her eyes and chuckles as he thumbs through them. 

“Don’t worry, once I was able to sit up I called and texted all the right people. Let them know we’d both come down with something.”

Harry finally get’s a good look at Sara. She’s freshly showered, and has clean clothes on, shoes, coat… bag. 

“Where are you off to?” He asks in a panic. 

“Jade Thirwall is in town, said she wanted to meet up to write.” She smirks. Harry knows she’s had a slight crush on the petite girl. He also knows he shouldn’t say a thing about said crush in front of Cara. 

He smiles to himself and shakes his head. Sara kisses Cara’s done up cheek. 

“Have a good session.” She rushes off leaving Harry and Cara behind. 

“And then there were two.” He says after Cara spends a good moment staring down at him. She jumps up onto the bed with him and she lays her head on his shoulder. 

“I think if you’re planning on sleeping in this bed any longer you ought to go take a shower.” He lets out a snicker. 

“I think I ought to just get going.”

“What and leave me here? All alone?” She pouts. 

“You know as well as I do when Sara get’s home she’ll be on you like an animal.” She lets out a full blown belly laugh that makes Harry smile. She never denies that she will indeed be having wonderful sex with her girlfriend later the evening. “What time is it?”

“Fifteen after nine.”

“In the evening?”

Harry doesn’t wait for her answer. He jumps up and begin searching for his things. A flannel he thinks, but he’s not really sure—he still feel’s out of it. Maybe it was his sunglasses, or his keys…

“They’re in the bowl by the door.”

“What?”

“Your keys, they’re in the bowl by the door.”

“oh.” He smiles, she laughs, “Thank you.” He kisses her cheek and flies out the door. 

He gets into his car, as he begins to drive off he’s not really sure where he’s headed. He’s not even sure what time it is, so he gives a quick glance at the radio, 8:17. A whole day in bed. He feels his phone vibrate in his pocket for a couple seconds before it rings through the stereo. A simple press of the button on the steering wheel and someone is greeting him. 

“Hi.”

“Harry, hey—no one could find you today?”

“Hey Niall, yeah sorry wasn’t feeling well…”

“Well I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Thanks.” 

Then no one says anything for a few moments. Harry continues to drive mindlessly around the block twice before he turns out onto a busier street. 

“What are you up to?” Niall asks. 

“Umh—“ Harry clears this throat. “Was just leaving Cara’s--”

“Is Sara okay? She wasn’t anywhere to be found either.”

“Yeah, she’s fine we’re fine. Umh—“ He clears his throat again. “We came down with a bad case of hangovers,” He laughs, hoping to earn a chuckle from Niall. 

“Ahhhh.” Niall says laughing softly on the other side of town. “That explains it.” Harry slow to a stop a red light, other cars lined up around him. He watches as the cars drive past him, speeding to beat the next light a few blocks down the road. “Got any plans for the night?” Niall asks, bring Harry out of his day dream. 

“I—I’ve not got any plans…” Niall invites Harry over. Harry stops to pick up some food on the way and when he arrives, Niall’s sitting on his door step waiting. Eye’s fixed on his phone. Harry honks once to get his attention as he pulls into the drive. Niall is up and standing, waiting by the side of the driveway in the grass. 

He’s not wearing shoes, Harry notices. He smiles and shakes his head. 

“Niall!” He yells when he opens his door. He yells like he hasn’t seen Niall in months. 

“Harry!” Niall yells back just enthusiastically. After Harry gather dinner from the passenger seat and locks up his car, he turns wanting to give Niall a hug. As he wraps his arm around Niall’s back, one of the bags swings and hits Niall’s back kind of hard. Niall just laughs it off as Harry tries to apologize repeatedly. “Don’t worry about it!”

Niall leads Harry inside where he directs Harry to put the bags on the coffee table and have a seat on one of the sofas. 

“Chinese?” Niall asks from the kitchen. 

“Yeah, is that all right?”

“Course!” Niall’s smile grows when he get’s back. There’s two bottles of beer sitting on a couple plate that Niall carries in one hand, and in the other he has two glass tumblers. On his face he’s got his fake glasses that Harry fancies so much. Makes him look smart—not that Niall isn’t already smart, Harry just supposes it might be that sexy librarian thing. 

His heart beats little harder after Niall sits a few inches away from him. 

“Dig in.” Niall says after placing a plate in front of him. Harry pulls the containers out of the bags, opening them and telling Niall what it all is. 

“Got crab rangoons and egg rolls, fried rice, chicken and broccoli, lo mien, pot stickers,” He lists. Niall puts a little bit of everything on his plate. 

“Did you get th—“

“The General’s Tso chicken? Sur did.” 

“Sick, thanks mate.”

After the food is served, Niall get’s the remote and flips through the channels on TV. He’s sitting on the edge of the cushion, his elbows on his knees while his plate sits safely on the coffee table. 

“Care to watch anything specific?” The blonde asks. “Could do with a film myself if you might fancy?”

“Sure.” Course Niall could have asked Harry if he wanted to watch the clock and Harry would have happily consented. 

Niall get’s into his Netflix account—as he’s taking a bite the page loads and the section that lists the stuff Niall ahs already started is at the top. There’s a few American films, and TV shows, but the purple thumbnail of one catches his eye. 

“Gilmore Girls? You watch Gilmore Girls?” Harry can’t help but ask because god knows he’s been obsessed. Niall’s face reddens. “Dude, we should watch that.” Harry smiles. 

“I’m on season three.” Niall says. 

“I’m about there.” Harry grins as the episode loads. 

“You’re probably on like season seven.” Niall laughs. 

“I’m about there.” Harry sais in chagrin.

“What season are you on?” 

“I’ve been through it a couple of times.” He admits which only makes Niall laugh harder. 

“Of course you are.” He concedes in admiration. There’s no hint of mocking in his tone, because Niall wouldn’t ever make fun of Harry.

The episode starts and it’s Niall who starts when the opening credits begin. Then Harry joins him and they sing a beautiful duet. The miss the next few minutes from laughing so hard. 

When they’re done eating Harry takes the dishes into the kitchen and Niall brings the left overs and puts them in the fridge. Harry reses off the plates and puts them in the dishwasher because he knows Niall like to run it every night. 

It’s a calm night in. A casual conversation drifting through the air, gently talking over the entertainment in front of them—it’s very fitting actually. 

Later Niall grabs blankets, but Harry knows the second he’s relaxed back with a blanket over him, he’s be put to sleep. Not too much later, Niall does fall asleep. Harry hates to wake him, and he knows Niall would be glad to have him stay, but something is pushing him away. So he gently shakes Niall awake as he turns the TV off.

“Mate, just wanted to wake you so can get up to your bed.”

“You could stay.” Niall offers unable to look Harry in the eye. 

“I know mate, but I should be off. Long day tomorrow right?”

“Right.” Niall tries not to look heart broken. 

“Right, well, sleep well mate. I’ll see ya in the morning.”

Niall doesn’t say anything else as Harry lets himself out. 

When Harry makes it home, he goes straight for a glass of water before heading up to his bedroom. He passes his office, which he’s not the let the house keeper or Sara touch in weeks, so it is kind of a mess. He also passes Sara’s room, and he tries not to linger like a new father staring at his baby in the crib. 

Sara’s not been spending as much time with him as she used to, and it’s almost like he is a father experiencing an empty nest. Her work keeps her busy, she travels almost as much as he does. And if not for work, she’s with Cara. 

He sighs and gives himself another moment before he goes to his own room. He shed his clothes and leaves them in a pile in the corner while he slips into his bathroom. He doesn’t wait for the water to heat up, but lets himself feel the temperature change as he stands under the steady stream of fresh California water. 

It doesn’t take warm to heat up. The bathroom steams up while he stands, contemplating why he feels, well empty. 

Despite the feelings brewing and clouding his brain he get’s to sleep fairly quick. 

He doesn’t wake up until his alarm in the morning. After spending an hour on the treadmill, and another shower he makes sit downstairs. Cara is sitting at the breakfast bar while Sara stands next to the stove frying some eggs. 

“Morning!” She sings. 

“Morning my love.” Harry crosses the room to kiss her cheek. “Did you get in this morning?”

“Last night, or I guess it might have technically been morning…” Cara smiles. She goes back to the paper in front of her. Sara shakes her head, face reddening. “And what were you up to last night?” Cara asks without looking up at him. 

“Had Chinese with Niall.” He says refusing to make any eye contact of any sorts. 

Sara serves the food she’s been making, and they sit. Sara’s waiting for any sort of detail from him, but he refuses so once he’s finished he puts his plates in the sink and slinks out of the room. 

“You’ve got a show tonight! Sound check is at four!” Sara calls out to him. 

“Thanks” He calls back. 

When he get’s to his room, he checks his phone—he sees a couple texts from Niall. It make him smile. He falls back on his bed, holding his phone to his chest. 

 

/// had a good time last night. Again? ///

 

Harry gets on stage and he feels like a god. Which feels blasphemous, but what doesn’t these days. He air drums and air guitars, and sings to the crowd just like every other night of his life. He grinds against his microphone stand, and picks on Liam with the rest of the lads. 

It’s a good night. 

The crowd is loud. 

Everyone sounds spot on. 

After they get off stage, a t-shirt and bottle of water ore offered to him. He takes them and waits for the cars to pull around. Niall catches up with him while the other lads are in the loo, or changing. Louis is probably lighting up a spliff and Liam’s probably doing the same to a cigarette. 

Harry climbs into the SUV and Niall jumps up in behind him. 

“What are the plans?” Harry decides to ask, the buzz from stage still making it’s rounds around his body. 

“Plans?” Niall clears his throat. 

“Dinner, movie?”

“Oh! Yeah, umh—I haven’t got any to be honest.” Niall nervously chuckles. 

“Did you want to-“

“Yes!” Niall says a little too excited. A blush clouds his cheeks and Harry has to look away to smile to himself. The radio is soft, but he can hear the catchy poppy drum machine with simple melody. “I mean—“ he clears his throat. “That would be nice.” Harry lets out a chuckle. 

“What sounds good?” Harry wonders aloud.

“Let’s see we had Chinese last night, you’ll want a kale salad with quinoa won’t you?” That had been Harry’s original plan. He had his new assistant pick it up for him after sound check. 

“I actually have that exact meal in my fridge.” This makes Niall laugh out for a minute. “We can get whatever though.” Harry hasn’t really been following any meal plan lately so it’s not like he has to feel guilty for going off menu. 

“That would be fine.” Niall says. 

“Mine?”

“Sure.”

The driver takes them right to the Harry’s gate and makes sure they’re behind the gate safe before they drive off. Harry’s keys jingle in his hand as they walk up to the front door. Niall takes his shoes off once they’re inside. Then as always he heads into the kitchen for a something to drink. 

He pulls the salad out of the fridge as Harry get’s plates out. The divide it between the two. Niall then goes back to the refrigerator to get them something to drink. When he doesn’t find what he’s looking for he heads over to Harry’s liquor cabinet. 

“What are you feeling like tonight?” Harry asks, watching him from across the room.

“Not sure.” He says as he pulls out a few bottles and puts them back. When he’s done, he turns and stands up right. “Water?” Harry nods once. 

They take they’re water and plates out to the living room where Harry begins setting up Netflix. 

“What episode did we leave off on?” Harry asks as he clicks on the “Gilmore Girls” thumbnail. Niall has already starts munching on the spinach in the salad mixture. Harry has to wait for him to finish swallowing. 

“I think it’s somewhere like in season three?”

Harry squints his eyes as they scan across the very brief titles and descriptions of each episode. 

“Do you remember what last happened?”

“I think it was like a few after the thanksgiving episode where they go to four different thanksgivings. The one where Sherry is in labor?” 

Harry finds it and plops down next to Niall. It comfortable when they eat. The show talks enough for them anyway. The episode passes, and the lads are long done with their food, but they stay sitting calm, eyes glued to the screen. The gentle waves of their breathing syncing up. It smells terrible, but neither minds much yet. 

Another episode passes, and another, and another. Both lads are tired, but neither can gather enough energy to actually close their eyes. 

It’s two in the morning before either says anything. 

“You packed?”

“Kind of.” Harry shrugs. “You?” The blonde nods. 

“Sara isn’t coming full on this time, is she?”

“No.”

“You already miss her.” Niall states. Harry just nods. 

“You can stay tonight, if you want?” Harry offers. 

“Thanks.”

The screen on the TV almost blinks in front of them, the prompt asking if they’re still watching. The answer is that they are. But Neither can be bothered to reach forward to press “okay”. 

Enough time passes that they’re just about asleep when Harry finally rocks forward to stand up. He presses the “off” button on the remote and holds out his other hand to help Niall up. 

“You can shower first.” Harry offers. Niall doesn’t let go of his hand as he’s led back to his bedroom. Harry doesn’t want him to let go. 

Niall leaves the door open just a crack. He shed off his jeans and shirt, leaving them in a pile on the floor. 

Harry sits on the edge of his bed waiting with great determination to keep his eyes open. Niall is done soon enough and Harry doesn’t waste any time jumping right in after him. It took him all that he had not to get in the shower with Niall. 

Harry doesn’t take long, in fact, he rushes because he knows the water will go cold soon. Once clean he steps out of the bathroom towel around his hips. Niall is already tucked under the covers of the bed that maid made up earlier in the day. 

Harry slips his legs through the leg holes of the boxers. Let’s his towel fall to the floor in a heap. He waits to see if Niall is still awake. 

“Get in ya tosser.” Niall says, it’s muffled though because his head is in the pillow. Harry finds it endearing and finally follows instructions. Niall quickly molds his body to Harry’s back, leaving a hand on his hip. Harry doesn’t remember falling asleep, but when he wakes the next morning—he’s sure he’s never slept better. 

He wakes soothed, and calm. The sun is warm when he turns towards the window. Niall tightens his grip around Harry’s waist. Harry grins to himself, lets the sun beat down on his bare shoulders. He feels safe and soothed her in Niall’s embrace. He wishes he would never have to leave this spot. 

Of course then, Niall’s alarm would sound, shaking him awake in a yawning and groaning. He squeezes once more before suddenly shooting open his eyes and realizing what position the two friends are in. 

Harry pretends to just wake up, yawning and rolling to turn toward Niall. Harry’s eyes squint as he see’s the imprints from Niall’s pillow on his face. 

“Morning.” Niall’s voice is is gruff, the kind that reminds him of oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips fresh from the oven. 

“Good Morning.” Harry responds. 

They lay like that for possibly too long. Harry feels the anxiety of being late, slowly creep into his stomach. He tries to push it down when Niall’s eyes shut again. The sun shines over Harry’s back and onto Niall’s face. 

“We should get up—“

“Call time is soon.” 

They say at the same time. A smirk crawls over their faces, but they don’t move. 

Eventually they do roll out of bed and climb into their clothes from yesterday. Harry tosses Niall the keys to his car to drive them to the location for the day. It’s calm a quiet, Niall turns the stereo volume low and then just hums along to the random songs. Harry continues to feel warm in Niall’s presence and dreads the time that will inevitably come where he has to leave him.   
Niall drives them past a small café that does drive thru and orders them each a coffee and a bagel; everything for Niall, and some flax seed/whole wheat combo for Harry. They are content with the silence that follows them to the studio where they are filming something promotional for some new campaign. 

They get there first, and Sara arrives not long before Liam, who gets there twenty minutes before Louis. And somehow Louis is not late. 

They’re swept off to wardrobe and make up, of course they sent Niall to make up and Harry to wardrobe first. Sara meets Harry in the room where hundreds of outfits hang on racks lining three of four walls. 

“How was your night?” She asks him. She sits on a table and sucks at her smoothie. 

“It was fine.” He wills himself not to blush. 

They shoot the promo video that will go up onto youtube a few weeks later, and then cars are called and they’re shipped off to the venue for sound check. Sara rides with Harry, still acting as a quasi manager for Harry. In the car she doesn’t press for anymore information. Sometimes she knows when to back off. 

Sara tries to stick close to Harry, and Harry tries to stick close to Niall. They head to Sarah’s kitchen area for some food while they wait for the crew to finish the inspection before all the boys pile on. 

Harry sits across from Niall. Sara sits down next to Niall with only a bottle of water. She peers over Niall’s shoulder at his plate. 

“Oi, get your own.” He laughs. 

“I’m fine, just wondered what was on the menu since Harry’s made himself another salad.” Niall laugh louder. Her phone pings, she gives it the attention is wants and then sits back for a moment staring from Harry to the back of Niall’s head. “Heard you two had a lovely night in.” Niall stops laughing. 

“Heard you and Cara spent the night having wild sex and fucking each other in every room of her house.” He spits. Sara’s face reddens, looking away from them. 

“Fine.” She pushes her seat out, makes a small exhale and stomps away. 

“You didn’t need to be that mean.” Harry says, not going after her. 

“She’s on this wild chase to set us up. She should try to be more discreet.” Niall won’t make eye contact. 

“Over your crush then?”

“Ever since she came out, ever since she started dated Cara, she’s been kind of annoying.” He takes a bite of food. “How come she’s not on you about meeting someone?” Harry had been in the process of swallowing when Niall speaks again which causes Harry to almost choke. He tries to clear his throat and reaches across the table for Sara’s un opened bottle of water. 

“Not a clue. Wants you to be happy, I suppose.”

“And she doesn’t want you to be happy?”

“I am happy.” He tries to defend.

“You’re about as happy as I am.” Niall looks at him with a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. Harry shakes his head, but he smiles too as he finishes his salad, refraining from ogling his best friend. 

The day goes on with sound check and some smaller phone interviews before the show. Sara doesn’t show up to support anyone. They’re supposed to get on a plane after the show, but she doesn’t make it. Her assistant sends a vague text to Harry a while after the plane has already been in the air for a few hours about staying back a few days to work with Taylor Swift on a song. 

She’s had to hire her own security and her own assistant, just to keep her schedule straight.   
Sara arrives in London three days later without having texted Harry once. She just shows up on set one day, smiling, but keeping her distance. 

She parks herself in a corner, computer on her lap, and head phones in her ears. She’s there, which Harry finds comfort in, but she’s not paying any attention—so what’s the point?

Liam, Louis, Niall, and Harry are standing up in a row in front of a couch they were filming on. Niall is drinking some tea and Harry is tossing a bottle of water in the air. 

“Go talk to her.” Harry presses while they’re waiting for filming to start. 

“She’s the one who’s being an ass.”

“But you yelled at her. Besides she’s coming home with me and I’d like her not to be in a bad mood.” Niall concedes and paces back and forth in front of her. When she finally looks up, she wears a forced smile. 

“Hey.” He says. She barely looks up at him, but takes her head phones out none the less. 

“What can I do you for?” She asks, feigning happiness. 

“Just wanted to say I’m sorry…” he pauses. “For saying rude things to you. It’s just—it feels like you’re trying to literally put someone on my dick, and I don’t—I don’t need that from you.” Her fingers stop moving and she finally looks up. “There’s stuff you don’t know about me too, stuff that I hide from everybody.” He confesses. “It just all came out the other day.”

“You just wanted me to back off.” The iciness in her voice evaporates. “I’m sorry for pressing it, I just want you to be h-“

“Happy. I know—that’s what Harry said.” He smirks. “It really is wild how alike you and Harry are—no wonder I like you so much.” He blushes. Sara tries not to read too much into it. 

“We good?” She asks. 

“We’re good.” He says and then pulls her up into his arms. Harry runs over to them, grabbing them both and nuzzling into their necks. 

“I don’t like it when mommy and daddy fight.” He laughs. Niall and Sara push him away laughing while shaking their heads. 

A bell rings through the stage and Niall and Harry are ushered back to standing in front of the couch. Sara shuts the her laptop, and watches on as the boys talk about the album and the song and plans for a holiday break. Lou comes by with some make up, “they wanted to see if you’d do a little online segment to promote the episode,” she tells Sara. Before Sara had helped write their album, she had become somewhat of a celebrity by association. Now, she’s practically more famous than the boys themselves.

They fit Sara into a simple dress after makeup is dusted over her face. She waits until the actual interview is over before they head over to a different sound stage—they put a Christmas hat on each of their heads and handed children’s instruments. After a quick practice they jam out to a traditional Christmas song and then they’re done.

Sara’s assistant calls as she’s changing back into the sweat pants she wore on the plane, to make sure she and Harry are getting on the road soon. 

“Will do. Thanks Megan.” They hang up and Sara texts Cara about being a little nervous about meeting Harry’s family. A moment later her phone rings again. 

“You’ve never met his family?” 

“Hello to you too… no, I mean I met them over video chat, but—“

“Gemma visits Harry once a year in LA.”

“Not since I’ve known him.”

“And if anyone would know, it would be you.” Cara chuckles. 

“They’re lovely people, I’m sure they’ll love you just as much as everyone else in the world.”

“Thanks babe.” Sara smiles. “How was your—“ She pauses to quickly check what time of day it still is in L.A. “was your sleep?” Cara takes a moment to let out a small laugh. 

“I missed you.” 

“I miss you too, haven’t slept yet—and not planning to until I get back home to you.” Cara laughs more. 

“You’ll be asleep in the car before you pass the first street sign.”

Sara laughs this time, nodding and unable to argue—knowing this to be true too. They trade jokes for a few more minutes before there’s a knock on her dressing room door. She wishes Cara a good day and slips on the rest of her clothes. 

“Niall, hi.”

“Harry says his car is fifteen minutes away.”

“Thanks!” When Niall turns to leave, Sara stuffs her sweater in her bag and rushes off to meet him. “Hey, look—umh, I’m meeting Harry’s family today and I’m nervous.” Niall doesn’t laugh or chuckle. 

“They’re great. They’ll love you.”

“This is so weird—I never had to think about this before—“ she confesses out loud. “Do they know about Harry? Are they okay with gay?”

“Yeah, they know, they’re really cool with it. Love Harry no matter what.” Then Niall stops and stands in front of her. He grabs Sara’s shoulders, tilts her chin up, and looks directly into their eyes. “They’re going to love you no matter what.”

Sara sighs and nods. Niall does not break eye contact. Eventually he decides she understands and kisses her forehead and taking her hand, leading her to the front hall where Harry waits for her and the car. 

“Okay?” Harry asks after reading our somber faces.

“Yeah. We’re good.”

The car shows up, and Harry pops into the driver’s seat while Sara get’s comfortable in the passenger’s side. She get’s her lap top out and Harry plugs in his driving playlist with smooth rock to nod his head to. 

Before they get on the freeway they stop for refreshments, iced coffee for Harry and cappuccino from a petrol station. It’s a long three-hour drive which Sara’s able to use as a bit of nap time. Harry is oblivious to her nerves. 

When they arrive, Harry’s three family members wait on the front steps of the house while Sara texts from Harry’s phone about just being down the road. 

“How long has it been since you’ve been home?” She asks as Harry parks. Harry shrugs and brushes the question off before leaping out of the car and into his mother’s arms. Anne keeps him in her arms for a good while, Sara comes around the other side and faces his family. Gemma waits at the back of the car. 

“Sara!” She smiles. 

“Gemma.” Sara says back. The stand in front of each other not sure if a hug is in order. 

“Mum is trying not to blame you for Harry’s not visiting.” She laughs. Sara tries to laugh to, but it makes her face go white. 

“Sara! Darling,” Anne says coming around the back of the car to take Sara in her arms. She sinks into her grasp like it’s her own mother. “Thank you for bringing him home.” She whispers, rubbing my back. Sara holds on as long as Anne will let her;. 

Sara let’s go eventually and turns to the “boot” to get their things. 

“Y’all call this the boot right?” Sara laughs, swallowing her tears, while she starts grabbing their bags. Robin answers her in the affirmative and helps her take her things into the house. It’s Harry that leads her to the spare bedroom next to Gemma’s old bedroom. After her things are set on the bed, Harry gives her a brief tour. 

“Help yourself to anything love.” Anne tells her once they all meet up in the kitchen. “I’m just so glad the both of you made it.” 

“Me too mum.” Harry says looking from Sara to his mother and then to his sister. “All my best gals in one place.” Gemma smiles and shakes her head. 

“We love the song.” Says Robin a few moments into the reluctant laughter. 

“Good, I’m glad—Sara worked really hard on it with us.”

“You’re a writer then?” Robin asks. Sara nods and smiles. 

“Yeah, she studied at university like Gems, got the degree and everything.” Harry speaks like a proud father. 

“Let the women talk—she also studied gender studies as well.” 

“Impressive.” Anne says. “It’s funny, you’ve done the university thing, and you hair looks like Gems, but you’re also famous like Harry—a mix of both.” 

“You hear that, she doesn’t need you guys anymore, she has me.” Sara says finally getting her voice back. The room erupts and Anne takes her another hug for good measure. 

Sara does fit right in, she get’s to talk about university and being a writer with Gemma, and she helps Robin with the roast and potatoes, and then helps Anne with the dishes afterward. 

Then, not with much surprise, she sits down with Gemma, Harry, and Anne to watch their game of scrabble, until she retires from a long day of traveling. She showers and slips into some clean sweat pants, before slipping into the freshly pressed sheets. 

Harry stays up with Gemma watching Harry Potter and chatting about things that are going on in each other’s lives. Gemma confesses to her brother about breaking it off with the guy she’d been seeing for a couple years. After a couple sad tears and a sweet hug, Harry confesses his massive crush on Niall. 

“About time you’re owning up to that.”

“What do you mean?” Harry asks almost offended. 

“What I mean is, you’ve been soft for that boy since you met him. Everyone though it was Louis, but we all know you were gone for him.” She doesn’t take her eyes off the last scene of the movie. She’s distracted and tired while she speaks, Harry chooses to believe it’s just exhaustion that’s making her think this. 

Harry then says very little while they wait for the credits to roll. After he takes care of his mug from the hot chocolate Anne made earlier and goes off to bed. 

He doesn’t realize he’d left his phone in his room until he sees it as he walks through the door way. It’s lit up with four messages from Niall. First he wishes them safe travels, and then he makes a joke about something that happened in the last episode of Gilmore Girls they watched, then Niall texting him he’s bored, and then a final wishing Harry a good night’s sleep. 

Sleep well xx. Harry sends before diving into the cover’s and falling asleep promptly. 

When he wakes, he can smell Sara’s famous French toast. He rolls and stumbles down the stairs as quick as he can to get a fresh piece. Coffee and tea are ready to be served when he reaches the bottom step. He can only hear Gemma and Sara’s voices.

“Good morning.” Harry sleepily states before falling into one of the stools by the counter. Sara slides a mug of coffee toward him.

“Morning.” Gemma and Sara accidentally say in unison. Amidst a small bought of laughter, both Robin and Anne appear watching over the young ins. Sara flips over the last three pieces of toast and waits for them to cook. In the mean time she retrieves mugs for the Harry’s mom and stepdad.

“What’s this?” Robin asks. 

“Eggy bread!” Harry excitedly exclaims. Sara serves up a plate with a giant stack and hands out more plates. She sets out butter and syrup and tells them to dig in. They do happily and Sara thinks that she’s never seen Harry more comfortable. She sits back sipping her own cup of coffee. 

“Aren’t you going to eat dear?” Anne asks after she’s begun eating. 

“I’m all right, did this for you all.” She says. 

“Between the roast last night and this today, you’re going to make us fat.” Robin laughs. Sara chuckles and then says:

“Bien cuidado.” 

“What?”

“Well taken care of, its what Latin people call people who don’t have a thin body type, you won’t be fat, but well taken care of.”

“Whatever we call it, I’ll be glad and happy. Thank you Sara.” Gemma says. 

After they’re done eating and Sara tries to wash dishes, Anne nudges her aside and tells her to go have fun. So Sara goes back up stairs to find Harry who’s smiling down at his phone. 

“Up for a run?” 

“What—uh yeah, let me—give me a minute.” Harry responds before looking back down at the screen of his phone. 

“If you want to just call Niall that’s fine too.”

“Is that okay?” Harry asks. Sara tries not to feel disappointed. 

“Course.” She smiled anyway. “Are the country roads over here fine to just jog next to?” She asks without skipping a beat. 

“Yeah, if you make it to town, you’ve run about three miles.” 

“Thanks.” She calls over her shoulder while she makes it back to her room.  
Sara changes into her leggings and sneakers while Harry lays in bed talking with Niall like he used to do after school when he was thirteen and talking to girls he thought were pretty. Sara stretches for a quick minute before heading out along the road. It’s about thirty-seven degrees and overcast. 

 

“You’ve not watched anymore have you?” Harry asks. 

“Course not. Promised I wouldn’t remember.”

“Yeah, I was just checking.” They sit quietly for a few moments, just listening to each other breathe. 

“How’s Sara?” Niall asks quietly. 

“Good, blends right in here.”

“Good.”

“Why do you ask?”

“No reason, just making sure you lot are treating her well and giving her the full Harry Styles experience.” Harry laughs, he can’t help it. 

“You do talk about shite sometimes.” He says while laughing still. 

Meanwhile, Sara can’t really breathe but that doesn’t stop her from running farther and faster. She get’s to town but it’s bigger than she expected—doesn’t remember it being that big when they drove through. Her phone’s battery is just about dead, she tells herself she’ll run until it dies. 

“Did you know, that Holmes Chapel is but a six-hour drive from Mullingar.” Niall tells Harry. 

“Actually it’s five hours and fifty-eight minutes.” Harry corrects looking at google maps on his computer. “I thought you were staying London for the hols.”

“Unlike you, I actually like seeing my family at all times of the year, not just the holidays.”

“I go home.”

“You haven’t been home since you met Sara.”

“You of all people know that we were busy.” Niall doesn’t respond and they go back to listening to each other breathing. 

“Could come visit if you’d like.” Sara walks back from town; she can’t seem to catch her breath. 

Harry wants him too, oh boy does Harry want Niall to travel to see him. But part of him feels reluctant to extend an invite. Niall must sense his hesitance because he doesn’t press the subject. 

They stay on the phone for a couple of hours, it’s just after lunch when they say goodbye. Sara walks through the front door just as Harry begins his trek to the kitchen. 

“Sara!” He exclaims upon seeing her. She smiles at him. Her breathing still erratic, but becoming more steady. “Hungry?”

“I think I’ll just go shower.” She thumps up the stairs and heads on in straight to the bathroom. While Harry hums to himself, Sara washes off the humidity and sweat from her trek into town and back. She stands under the hot spray of water until it slows her breathing enough to be back to normal. 

Once her body is padded dry enough she pulls on a different set of sweat pants and shirt. Before she can make it down stairs for lunch and then a little later for dinner, she’s in bed asleep against the borrowed pillow. She even forgets to plug her phone in, so when she wakes late into the night, she has not an idea that it’s almost 2 am. 

She rolls over once in the bed, yawns and then stretches her neck. Legs aching, she rolls once more to plant her feet on the floor to stand. Reaching down to touch her toes she sees her phone just under the edge of the night stand next to the pile of the clothes she was wearing before. 

When she presses the home button and it doesn’t light up she gently falls to her knees to to rummage through her bag to reach her charger. After plugging it in, she stumbles to the bathroom and then to the kitchen for some water. In the kitchen she decides she should eat something when she sees her hand holding the glass of water shake. 

She rummages the fridge and freezer, finding an old country fried steak and potatoes packet in the back. Best method of cooking: oven. Oven it is, so while it preheats she goes back up to her room as quietly as she can manage to fetch her computer and phone, and all the corresponding cords. 

She plugs into an outlet next to the coffee maker just as the oven beeps to let her know it’s preheated. She opens the box and pulls the plastic off the tray and slips it inside. She goes to her computer to check her email in the mean time. Her phone lights up as she’s responding to Kyle, a photographer, about setting up a time to do a photo shoot for some clothing line she’s supposed to be designing or something. 

Harry rubs his eyes as he walks into the kitchen. Sara looks up briefly before seeing her phone blow up with group messages and voicemails from Cara. 

“Hey.” They say to each other. “What are you doing up?” Sara ends up asking him. 

“Are you feeling okay?” He asks, confused and concerned about her slumber. 

“Peachy.” She says looking back at her computer. 

“Mind if I keep you company?” She didn’t notice he too had brought his computer down with him. 

“Not at all.” She smiles as best she can at now two thirty in the morning. 

They sit quietly, only the tapping of their keyboards and the smell of her dinner filling the room. 

Sara’s stuck trying to explain herself to Cara. She feels frustrated that she fell asleep to early and missing out on a nice conversation with Cara. She gets to the last text message and it’s from Niall. 

“How’s Niall?” She ends up asking Harry, not sure if she might be over stepping her bounds. Harry can’t help but smile. 

“He’s good. Asked about you today. You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m really good.” She says mostly because she is. She’s never felt so accepted and loved from a parental figure before yesterday. 

A little while later Sara pulls her dinner out of the oven and lets it sit to cool down. 

Sara eats and works while Harry sits tapping on the keys, typing something to someone. They exchange yawns for a couple hours more before Harry eventually head back off to bed without saying too much. Sara is glad to be alone again. She’s not sure if it’s the foreign bed she’s sleeping in, or the strangeness of feeling so loved from Harry’s mom. Or maybe, deep down she knows she’s sort of loosing Harry from spending so much time with Cara and her career and him slowly drifting closer to Niall. Whatever it is, it’s keeping her up. 

Dawn breaks and she’s still up in the kitchen, so she cleans up her mess and tip toes back up to her room to pretend have been sleeping all night. To be fair, she does feel tired by then so she does climb back into the bed and sets an alarm for a couple hours.

Once Harry had fallen back to sleep he was out like a rock. 

Sara is the last to get up that morning, having pressed the “snooze” button one too many times perhaps. She wakes up so late that Anna and Gemma have already gone into town for the last minute grocery and gift shopping. Sara sips coffee, sharing the paper with Robin. 

“Is everything all right dear?” He asks and Sara’s almost had enough of people asking if she’s alright, while also supposing that Robin deserves a free pass as he too has been more loving toward her than her own father. 

“It’s all different and changing now, isn’t it?”

“Suppose, but it’s for the best right? You and Harry are being true to yourselves.”

“But at what cost? I’m famous now. I’ve got an assistant, and I’m dating a super model—it just doesn’t feel like I’m being true to myself.” Sara uses her fingers to put air quotes around “famous”, her eyes don’t look up from her hands fidgeting in her lap. 

“What do you want?” Robin asks and it feels like the moment in a movie about someone in a dead in job and hates their life and is asked by another character if they’re happy, and they aren’t and it’s clear so they change everything about their life to make it what they want. But Sara doesn’t want to change anything. For once in her life she’s surrounded by people she loves and that love her. She’s a successful writer—she can afford her rent and she’s happy about it.

“I probably sound like an idiot—complaining about life when it’s as good as mine.” She smiles and looks at Robin hoping for some hard truth. She looks just in time to see him shrugging letting her know it’s up to what to think. They get interrupted as Harry walks into the room.

“Hey guys, Sara you want to go into town? Or like for a walk? I can show you around Holmes Chapel? Robin you’re welcome to come to if you’d like.” 

“Thanks, I’ll think I just stay in and read.” Robin puts his hand on Harry’s shoulder and kisses my forehead. 

“Sara?”

“Sure, let me go get dressed.” He smiles at her and then leaves them. 

Harry goes to the sink for a glass of water. Robin stays watching him move. 

“Can’t do this in L.A.”

“Drink water from the tap?”

“Nope, full of lead, or chemicals, or something.” Robin chuckles for him, raises his eyebrows. 

“Like it out there still?” The question makes Harry almost choke. 

“Course. Miss it here sometimes.”

“Could come visit more?”

“You know I try my best to get back here as much as I can.” Harry says because they’ve had this conversation before. 

“I know, I know—“

“It’s not like you and mum can’t come visit me.” He interrupts. 

“But when we do that, you leave your mother and I to all but fend for ourselves for the whole time we’re they’re.” Robin doesn’t get angry often, his gentle nature matches Harry’s in this sense, but when someone, let alone Robin, questions his love for his family he can’t help but get a little hot headed. “You haven’t been home for a couple years, Harry, it hasn’t been like that since the beginning.” Harry goes silent because he knows that Robin is right.

“I know.” 

Harry and Robin are quiet, leaving Harry deep in thought. 

“I didn’t want to talk to you like this—“

“You’re right. I need to do better.” Quiet follows before Sara pops back into the kitchen to let Harry know she’s ready. Her hair done up in a bun and she has on a sweatshirt with a loose pair of joggers. Harry is wearing a similar ensemble. Robin looks at the two, chuckles and then shakes his head. 

“One in the same really.” Then he takes his mug and the paper with him out of the room. 

“We really do need to do a little better with coordinating our outfits.” Sara laughs too. 

“You’d think we’d have this down by now.”

Harry leads her out of the house and down the drive way. They walk in the same direction Sara took to town yesterday. Harry leads her toward the river to a path that runs along it. They walk slowly against the flow of the river, heading up stream. The water makes the air feel cool, it’s fresh and clear. 

“This is really beautiful.” Sara says after a few minutes of silence. 

“It is. Was really great before they put pavement down.”

“I can imagine.”

As they walk, Harry collects sticks and leaves he finds on the edges of the path, weaves them into a crown he puts on Sara’s head. 

“Bow to your queen.” Sara bellows before she pretends to walk with a cane and perfect posture. Harry bows next to her, Sara laughs at him. After he stands back up and slides back into his stride next to her, she loops her arm through his. 

“I really am sorry for trying to push you onto Niall’s lap.”

“Its fine really. I know you didn’t mean any harm by it.”  
They walk a little further with just the sound of running water filling the space. 

“It’s crazy how someone can control someone’s sexuality they way your bosses have.” Sara changes the subject. 

“It’s fine, I’m just glad you get to have you moment, you get to be happy.”

“You should be happy too though.” Harry doesn’t respond and Sara doesn’t press anything further. 

Once they get to the end of the river they turn off the path and head home a less scenic way. Part of Sara feels like Harry might be trying to get away from her. He picks up his pace, Sara practically jogs next to him to keep up. 

“Where’s the fire bucko.” She huffs. When he doesn’t say anything she thinks he didn’t hear her. “Hey.” She says a little louder. “Are you trying to run away from me?” She stops in her tracks, almost waiting to see if Harry notices she’s not right next to him. His cheeks are pink when he turns, bitten from the chill that’s taken over the town. 

“We’ve got to hurry.” Is all he says with a wicked smile. Sara looks behind her to make sure nothing is chasing after them. Harry holds his hand out for Sara to take and he pulls her along, closer to the center of town. 

As they get closer, Sara hears it. The sound of a thousand people singing Christmas carols. Harry pulls her until they get they’re right across the street from the church where a choir stands. Sara pulls Sara into a half hug and Sara tucks herself into his embrace. She almost cries it’s so beautiful. 

The choir sings on until the sun goes down. Harry resumes his pulling, and pulls them into a little pub around the corner. The bartender’s face lights up when she sees Harry. 

“Two hot cocoas please.” He orders, holding up his middle and index finger in a peace sign. The choir slowly fills the pub, they order drinks and tea and hot chocolate. After they finish they gather by the small stage in the corner and start up again. All the classics. It’s so beautiful, Sara doesn’t see Anne, Robin, or Gemma come up to them—let alone the rest of the town that filters through the door to listen to them. 

Somewhere between the songs, Gemma’s orders shots for them. Sara takes hers without really thinking. She becomes drunk quicker than both Gemma and Harry and by the time the choir finishes she’s sobbing. Anne holds her and pets her head, while she sobs about how beautiful it was. 

“Is she okay?” Harry hears him before he seems him. The room gone a little burry, he holds onto the bar while he tries to focus on the figure standing near enough that he must know the group well. Then it registers in Harry’s brain that the figure has blonde hair and has an Irish accent. 

“Niall?” He shouts and blinks—begging his eyes to refocus. 

“How drunk is he?” Niall leans over toward Robin to ask. 

“Niall?” Sara and Gemma ask at the same time. The three drunkards turn and leap toward the man. 

Niall catches them as best he can. His balance falters some, but Robin steps behind him to help him catch them. Niall kisses each of their cheeks. Niall has a sober conversation with Robin and Anne while Sara and Harry start singing into their half empty glasses. Niall nurses a pint of lager for the night until Anne and Robin carry Sara and Gemma to the car. 

“You’ll be fine, finding the house at this hour?”

“Course, know this place like the back of my hand.”

“See you at home then love.” 

Sara and Gemma are left to fall asleep in the back of the tiny silver Prius, proving to be even more difficult to get into the house while Harry slumps over Niall’s shoulder, Niall puts his arm around his back and helps him to the car he’s rented from the airport. 

“Niall.” Harry whispers into Niall’s ear. “Are you staying at mum’s? You can stay in my room, sleep with me in my bed—don’t worry I’ve got a bigger one now—proper man bed, big enough for two.” His breath tickles Niall’s neck where a blush starts to grow. “You’ve got such smooth skin.” Harry nuzzles his cheek into his neck. “Warm too, why is it so cold?” Harry asks this about a thousand other questions while Niall carries him to the car. 

Harry is humming loudly in the back seat when Niall climbs behind the wheel. He looks in the rear view mirror and see’s that Harry is wearing a big smile.

“What?” Niall asks. 

“You’re very handsome.” Harry mumbles and then blushes, like he knows that he said. Niall shakes his head while turning the car on and making sure the child lock is on so Harry can’t unknowingly throw himself out a moving vehicle, only sort of trying to shrug off Harry’s comment on account of his drunken stupor. Niall can’t wash it from his thoughts as he drives home. He can’t wash anything that Harry’s said since Niall had shown up from his mind. 

Niall drives carefully as Harry moves on to singing the Hamilton soundtrack, serenading Niall. He parks next to Harry’s car in the drive, and then goes around to the back seat to help Harry out. 

“Can I help you with your bags?” Harry asks trying to stand on his own. A bought of dizziness takes him, he braces himself against the car for a moment. 

“Can’t even stand for yourself, how’re you going to carry me bag for me?”

“I’m sobering up. You do that to me. Make me think clearer and all that.”

“The shite coming from your mouth begs to differ.” Niall mumbles, Harry doesn’t catch it so he flops Harry’s arm over his shoulder to carry him into the house. 

“What about your bag?”

“I’ll get it once you’re safe in bed.” 

The head toward the back of the house and in the door by the kitchen where Robin and Anne sit waiting, cups of tea between their hands. 

“The girls safe?” He asks. They nod and offer to help carry Harry who is half sleep and drooling on his shoulder. Niall takes Harry up to his room as quietly as he can, almost dragging him along next to him. Inside the room, Niall plops the boy on the bed and kneels down to get the boots of Harry’s feet. 

“I like this view.” Harry says looking down at Niall between his legs. Niall blushes again and quickly stands. 

“I’ll be back in a mo’.” 

Harry slides between his duvet and the sheets and goes so far as to unbutton his jeans before nearly passing out completely. Niall only knows he’s not completely unconscious because when Niall finally slides in on the other side of the bed, Harry rolls over and swings his arm around Niall’s waist. 

They both sleep soundly. 

Niall wakes before the rest of the house. He makes his way down stairs to start some coffee and the water for tea. Then he grabs three big glasses of cool water and a bottle of Paracetamol. He goes into Harry’s room first to deliver the refreshments, then peaks inside Gemma’s and Sara’s rooms to make sure they’re decent before slipping inside to deliver water and medicine for them.   
He goes back down stairs to the kitchen and starts making some toast. Anne is the first to join Niall, he offers to make her some toast. 

“Thanks I’ll just have the tea for now.”

“They got pretty wasted last night.” He says after a few moments. Usually he feels so at home when he visits Anne, but with what Harry had said last night still ringing in his ears, it feels different. 

“They’ll be in bed all day.” Anne sighs. 

“As long as they’re home, right?” Niall guesses. Anne nods and hums as she swallows a sip of her tea. Robin wakes and slips downstairs a few minutes later. He goes to the coffee and thanks Niall for starting it. Niall offers more toast and Robin accepts. Robin munches on it while they listen to the three upstairs moaning and groaning and dragging their feet down the hall and back to their rooms. 

After a while Niall parks himself on the the couch in the family room with his computer on his lap. He pulls up a demo he’s been working on for another artist, messes with some of the audio levels and editing various instruments into or out of to make it sound like something he’d be proud to have his name on. 

He doesn’t notice Harry slip down the stairs with a blanket and collapse next to him. 

Niall works until Anne asks him if he wants anything from town. Harry slowly wakes at his feet, while Sara and Gemma begin another round of scrabble. 

“What, no—I’m good. Thank you though.”

“Pick him up some of that beer he likes.” Harry’s voice is rough, and he doesn’t open his eyes when he talks. “Please.” He smiles. 

“It’s really all right.”

“Nonsense!” Anne smiles and kisses Niall’s forehead before bundling up in her coat and boots to brave the Cheshire winter. “I’ll be back in a bit!” She calls before shutting the door. Niall goes back to working a while longer until Harry begins getting restless and Gemma and Sara become more themselves. Niall’s taking the head phones off his head and shutting his laptop and hears Gemma and Sara laugh quietly at a word Harry’s suggested over Sara’s shoulder. 

“Buzz off.” Gemma whisper yells, across the table. 

“Buzz off?” He laughs, his body shaking and officially taking Niall’s mind off the songs he’s working on. Sara plays the word anyway and Gemma laughs after making a joke about Sara not being able spell even though she’s a writer. 

“How’re you guys feeling?” Niall finally has the chance to ask. They shrug and Harry sort of falls to the side next to Niall. 

“Wait,” Sara closes her eyes and shakes her head after soberly realizing that Niall is with them. “When the fuck did you decide to come to Holmes Chapel?” Harry is still laying on the floor, he turns into Niall’s leg as his face reddens, almost like he’s trying to hide. 

“Talked to Harry a bit a few days ago and I didn’t really have any plans to go back to Ireland…” Niall’s face also deepens in color; he reaches behind his head to scratch the back of his neck. 

Gemma states at them. She can’t decide what’s going on. Sara refuses to over think anything. She knows how delicate the situation is, so she pulls Gemma’s arm so she stands up and they leave Niall and Harry to be embarrassed together. 

“Are they--?” Sara doesn’t let her finish. She shrugs and they peak around the corner to see the two boys sitting on opposite sides of the couch, neither looking at the other. 

 

“So, it’s almost Christmas.” Niall says. 

“You’re here, you’re like actually proper here.” Harry says. “Thought I dreamt it.”

“Is it okay that I’m here?” 

“Course. You’re always welcome.”

Just then, Anne pushes the front door open, the wind whistles in around her makes the boys jump and shiver. 

“Alright?” She asks passing through to the kitchen. Harry is quick to stand and help his mum unload the bags of groceries. Niall follows close behind ready to put the kettle on so Anne can have some tea. “Thanks loves.” She says to the two of them. 

Harry ins’t sure what’s going on. Feels kind of like a dream really. Niall suprising him the night before was more than he could have asked for, and yet he’s here, celebrating the holidays, nonetheless. 

“What would you like for supper love?” Anne asks as Niall hands over a steaming mug. 

“You know me, not picky.”

“We could make a stir fry.” Harry suggests as he puts away the fresh produce his mom had just purchased. Gemma and Sara are upstairs, their mumbles just barely audible through the floor. Harry knows they’re talking about the situation with him and Niall. He knows the two women better than he knows himself, Gemma wasn’t able to resist questions and Sara wasn’t able to hold back. 

When Harry looks back to where his mum and Niall are leaning against the counter, he can see the way Niall is so relaxed—like how he looks once he get’s a guitar in his hands. The curves of his shoulders and arms and hands holding a cup of tea. His mum is animated when she talks to Niall about what Harry and Sara have been up to during their stay. 

“Sara’s not homesick for Cara yet is she?”

“Cara Delevingne? Harry didn’t say they’d gotten together—“  
“Sara and Cara? They’re sickeningly in love.” Niall adds a laugh to show Anne he’s not upset about it. 

“Weren’t you and Sara together?”

“Kind of—“ Niall starts.

“They weren’t really together—she’s gay, but management thought it would make a cute story—which it did,” Harry thinks back. “But, it got a little much—Sara was ready to be who she was and because she wasn’t me she was aloud to come out…” He grows tense. “Niall actually fancied eh for a bit, but Sara is 100% lesbian and pining after Cara, so close to the end of her and Niall’s “relationship” she began seeing Cara in secret.”

Anne and Niall watch Harry for a moment before responding. Anne’s brow is creased and Niall is stoic starting back. Harry thinks he might have said something he shouldn’t have, but he can’t remember. He clears his throat and forced out a laugh. Their faces lighten up to reveal weak smiles, but Harry can tell they’re unsure of what’s happening with Harry. 

“Shall I start chopping the veg?” Harry asks changing the subject completely. Anne slowly nods so Harry makes a move to get off the cellophaned vegetables from the fridge. Next to the cabinet Niall is leaning against Harry leans down to get the cutting board. Niall watches in concern. Harry doesn’t catch it, or refuses to catch the look when he stands back up. 

Niall helps him open the vegetables and washes them for Harry to begin chopping. Anne watches as the two fall into a rhythm. 

“Mum?” Harry says without looking up from the cutting board. “You can go have a seat, Niall and I can fix up dinner.”

“We’ll let you know when it’s ready Anne.” 

“Thank you boys.” She says coming to kiss each of their cheeks. Before leaving she grans a bottle of wine from the fridge and three wine glasses. The steps creek as she walks up. 

“Is it just me or are they upstairs talking about us.” Niall asks after a few moments of silence. 

“Oh, they’re definitely talking about us.”

“What about?”

“Oh probably that you’re madly in love me or something.” Harry laughs. At first, Niall doesn’t move, and he doesn’t make a sound. Before too much time passes, he erupts in one of the loudest laughs Harry thinks he’s ever heard. “That absurd?” 

“No, course, just—“

“What?”

Niall just stops laughing, he stares at Harry, biting his lip. He isn’t sure what to say. They unconsciously drift closer together. They both know they’re about to kiss, but they don’t try to stop. Harry keeps his eyes open as long as he can before he goes cross eyed. Staring as Niall up close—it doesn’t seem like he’d ever seen him like this. 

The kiss is tender, Niall’s lips are dry but Harry doesn’t mind. His hand goes to the back of Niall’s head to hold him closer. The girls upstairs go silent, like they know what’s just happened. 

When they pull apart their eyes are locked on each other.


End file.
